The couple also co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, lobbying on behalf of spinal cord injury victims and for stem cell research.
Christopher Reeve also decided to do whatever he could to grant his son a happy childhood.
During an interview with PEOPLE in 2016, Will opened up about his amazing childhood, which he considered a “totally normal” one.
“They were the people who told me to turn off the TV, to eat my broccoli, to go to bed,” Will lovingly recalled. “I understand that not every child experiences going to the grocery store and seeing their dad on the magazine at the checkout aisle, but … it was a totally normal childhood.”
Will also remembered when his father taught him how to ride a bike from his wheelchair. “I didn’t believe it was gonna work. I’m terrified, but I have my dad’s voice behind me going, ‘Steady, steady, left, right, left, right,’” he said, adding, “By the third lap, I’m smiling, looking at my dad, waving, and he’s smiling. That meant so much to him. Later on, I would race in him the wheelchair. He’d let me win.”
Sadly, Will’s father passed away when they were piecing everything back together.
Christopher Reeve death
Christopher Reeve struggled with several health problems already as a young kid. He had asthma and allergies that affected his breathing.
